


Flowers and Engines

by kitausu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Mechanics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Flirting, Flowers, Fluff, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, wingman lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 19:26:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13596765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitausu/pseuds/kitausu
Summary: Keith isn't hiding, he's just observing...and maybe only a little bit pining for the guy who owns the flower shop across the street.





	Flowers and Engines

**Author's Note:**

> A little thank you to http://space-peachx.tumblr.com/ for all the art she makes and being a total sweetheart!

Keith was not _hiding,_ no matter what Pidge crowed from the back of the shop or Shiro teased when he dropped by with lunch that day.

Keith did not _hide._ He just…blended into the background…delicately, like a shadow.

“Like a freight train?” Lance offered, snickering as Keith shot him the finger.

“You know, you don’t always have to bring Lance along when you drop off my lunch. I see him enough as it is,” Keith hinted, but without any heat.

They actually got along pretty well now, and teasing was more just something they did then something that meant anything. It didn’t stop Shiro from rolling his eyes or pinching Lance on the side when he stuck his tongue out petulantly.

“Children, _behave,"_ Shiro sighed, picking out a chip from his plate where they were all settled around Keith’s desk.

“Yes, daddy,” Lance sang, shooting a little smirk Keith’s way when he groaned in irritation.

“I told you not to do that around me!”

Shiro didn’t say anything, suddenly intensely interested in his sandwich and absolutely not making eye contact with Keith like his life depended on it.

“So, why were you hiding?” Lance asked, mouth full of burrito and nearly spewing the contents across Keith’s desk.

“I wasn’t—I wasn’t _hiding._ I was… _observing._ ” Keith hedged.

It was his turn to not look anyone in the eye now. Although, it was a tremendous mistake to look out the window, too. _He_ was there, watering the flowers outside of his shop, in a sleeveless shirt no less.

“Oh, is that him?”

Keith flailed, startled at the sound of Lance’s voice suddenly right in his ear.

“ _Fuck,_ what is _wrong_ with you?” Keith snapped, but he was blushing and his eyes were still flickering to the window, where _he_ was talking to a customer and smiling and laughing silently through the glass.

“He is cute,” Shiro was leaning across the desk to look, a smile in his voice like he was planning…something.

“Oh no, don’t you two start,” Keith warned, wagging his finger at them both now that Lance had moved back around to the other side of the desk.

“Start?” Shiro looked genuinely innocent, like he couldn’t fathom what Keith meant…that was until you noticed the way he was shooting Lance little looks whenever he thought Keith wasn’t paying attention.

“You two are the worst, and I don’t know why I put up with either of you,” Keith grossed.

Lance, at least, had the decency to not pretend like he wasn’t hatching a plan right then.

-

When Keith walked into his office and spotted the flowers, he nearly dropped dead. He was frozen, eyes transfixed on the roses at the center of his desk.  They were a beautiful deep red color, the petals looked silky even from a distance. Keith had to fight the urge to reach out and stroke along the silken edges. They were even arranged in a delicate glass vase, with an obvious note sticking out of the top.

Keith was cautious when he unfolded the paper. The writing was unfamiliar, but the words had Keith snarling as he stomped out of the office.

_Just testing the delivery at this place. Make sure to tip! – Lance_

“Pidge!” Keith bellowed, kicking the door out of his way and waving the note around like he thought it would somehow change the contents.

She looked up from where she was fiddling with the engine of someone’s Mazda, then bust out laughing at the incredulous look on Keith’s face.

“Don’t worry, I tipped,” She grinned, such a shit eating little grin because she knew damn well that wasn’t what he was pissed about.

“You only missed him by 5 minutes, too,” Pidge hummed, now almost entirely focused back on the engine in front of her. 

"What?" Keith frowned, missed...

"That guy you're always mooning over? He said since we were neighbors he dropped them off personally."

Pidge shrugged like it didn't matter to her at all, but she couldn't hide the smirk curling the corner of her lips. 

Without a word, Keith spun on his heel and marched back into his office. He slammed the door for good measure but Pidge's cackle echoed through the flimsy wood anyway. 

It was Saturday, which meant Shiro was probably just getting home from the gym when Keith called. 

"Keith?"

Shiro sounded pleasantly surprised and he could hear Lance yelling hello from the background somewhere, which only spiked his irritation more. 

"Yeah, tell your boyfriend to stop meddling in my life," Keith snapped, ignoring any attempt at civility.

Shiro would forgive him. 

"Sure," Shiro agreed easily, immediately setting Keith on guard.

He had at least expected a sigh or Shiro telling him to be nice or…or _something._

"But Keith? You know he doesn't mean anything by it, right? We just worry about you. We want you to have someone." 

Even though Keith couldn't see him, he could hear that smile in his voice. The patent Shiro 'I just want to help' smile that could melt anyone within 5 miles. Lance and Keith had once witnessed it work on the crotchety Wal-Mart greeter who always yelled at them when they walked too quickly. Keith was convinced it was weapon grade.

“I do have someone! I have plenty of someones! I have you and Pidge and…and damnit, I have Lance,” Keith ground out.

He could hear Lance yelling _yeah you do_ somewhere in the background and couldn’t help but smile, especially since Lance wouldn’t be there to see it anyway.

 “You do. You have all of us. And if that was all you wanted, that would be more than okay. It just kind of seemed, recently, like you maybe wanted another someone and Lance just wanted to help. Because if that's something that you want, then you deserve that, Keith.”

The problem with Shiro was that he was so earnest, and he knew Keith so well, there was no way Keith could blow him off or pretend like everything he was saying wasn’t true. Shiro would know, and worse, Shiro would be disappointed in him for lying.  

He blew out a puff of air, hissing it through his teeth as he considered.

Would it really be so bad, if Lance meddled a little? What was the worst that could happen, that the guy he didn’t have a chance in hell with suddenly became the guy he _really_ didn’t have a chance in hell with?

“Still there?” Shiro asked, his voice still easy and accepting like it had been before.

Honestly, Keith could have forged on, told him he didn’t want their help, didn’t need it. Shiro wouldn’t believe him, but he would have accepted it and that would have probably been the last Keith ever heard of it.

“Yeah, I'm still here.”

Except, when Keith really thought about it, let himself picture the _best_ case scenario, he found he was maybe willing to let Lance meddle, just a little more.

“Tell Lance…tell Lance, thank you. But, he’s still an idiot!” Keith tacked on, mostly because he felt like he had to.

Shiro only laughed, “I’ll do that.”

They both knew what Keith really meant, that if Lance maybe wanted to try again…Keith wouldn’t absolutely hate it.

-

It was another week before Lance’s handiwork showed itself again. Keith had largely expected Lance had given up or forgotten by this point. Keith kind of wished he could say the same thing about himself. But, how could he? When every look outside his office window reminded him that he still hadn’t worked up the courage to just say hello. 

His life became a game of distraction. What could he do to keep his mind off _the plan,_ as Lance had so annoyingly dubbed it.

“Maybe…your job?” Pidge had offered, unhelpfully.

“I think you forget who owns this place!” Keith huffed, even as he turned back to his office to get some unfortunately much-needed work done.

No one had warned Keith that opening his own garage would require so much more paperwork. He missed getting his hands dirty more, not that he never worked on the cars. But paper work, that was something Keith could live without.

Keith was brooding particularly hard over customer reports one morning when there was a tentative knock at his office door. This, in itself, was weird as hell. No one who ever came to his office, knocked. Pidge and Lance and Shiro all just barged in and customers generally didn’t make it past the front desk.

There was another knock, this one a little more confident sounding.

Cautiously, Keith stood and opened the door. _He_ was standing there. Larger then life and holding an even larger bouquet of Easter lilies.

“uh…Keith? Kogane?”

It was the guy from across the street. His shirt sleeves were rolled up past his shoulders and Keith’s brain kept catching on the word _beefy_ in a voice that sounded distinctly like Lance in his head but wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Yeah— _yes,_ that’s me,” Keith stammered, trying to force his lips into a smile and probably missing by a mile.

“I’m Hunk, from across the street?” Hunk offered, gesturing with the flowers and nearly hitting himself in the face as the petals swayed.

He blushed a little as he steadied his grip. Keith absolutely was not charmed, not in the slightest, except for how he totally _was._

“I have a delivery for you,” Hunk grinned, flashing rows of perfectly straight teeth, before handing Keith the flowers.

“Oh…uh, thank you?” Keith struggled under the clumsy bulk of the package, stumbling over to the desk to plop them down on his now forgotten work.

It wasn’t like the flowers were heavy, but they were huge and Keith was feeling unexpectedly weak from being essentially blindsided.

“You know, those were some really interesting instructions,” Hunk drawled, a conspiratorial note in his voice, like he thought Keith was in on the joke.

Keith suddenly, absolutely, did not want to hear the instructions. He could guess, and he could live without that particular embarrassment.

“ _Please hand deliver. Don’t let the little gremlin in the front turn you away. Get these into the hands of Keith Kogane or die trying…please,”_ Hunk mimicked in a fair imitation of Lance’s perky voice.

“That last bit was from someone else in the background,” Hunk admitted, and Keith could easily see the look of fond embarrassment on Shiro’s face as he listened to Lance make the order.

“So, what was the urgency?”

Keith was busy fussing with the flowers, waiting for the first degree burn of his cheeks to fade away. If he had been looking at Hunk, he might have been too distracted to hear that little note of knowing in his voice. But Keith was listening so hard, with every cell of his body, as he touched the lily petals.

There was a note sticking out of this bouquet, too.

_When you’re done flirting, can you bring these to Shiro? They’re his favorite – Lance_

“I’m going to murder him,” Keith groaned, dropping his face into his hands.

Hunk was pretty obviously laughing behind him, big, full body laughs that filled the dingy office. Something was burning out in the garage, but Keith was struck with the entirely irrational thought that it was probably him, leaking steam from sheer embarrassment.

“It seems like you have good friends.”

The voice was a lot closer then before and Keith whirled around to find Hunk only a foot or so away from him. The office door was still wide open, but the closeness was weirdly intimate. Not a lot of people stood that close to him, close enough to hear each other breath.

“They’re okay,” Keith squeaked.

Hunk was so much bigger then him. Taller, sure, but also bulkier. He filled Keith’s entire field of vision easy as breathing. Keith viciously tamped down on the thoughts that wanted to spring up, the thoughts from nights before when he had let his mind roam to this very scenario. Now wasn’t the time, or the place, or the…anything.

Hunk smiled again, an easy thing that had Keith smiling in return before he even knew it.

“You know…I’ve kind of been working up the courage to come over here,” Hunk confessed, the skin of his cheeks turning rosy in his own embarrassment as he awkwardly scratched his neck.

“What?” Keith’s voice sounded strangled in his throat.

“Uh yeah…dude, have you seen yourself? How can anyone spend their day under a car and still…look like you do?” Hunk sounded exasperated, like this was a very serious problem that had kept him up at night.

“You, too!” Keith blurted out then winced as Hunk’s eye widened in confusion.

“I mean, you…too…I’ve been wanting to…come talk to you for a while.”

There was no reason for Hunk to look so pleased, but he did, really pleased, like Keith had made his whole week.

“Well, then…would you want to go get dinner some time? I can bring your favorite flowers, instead of your friend’s.”

When Hunk finally left, it was only 10 minutes later, but Keith had a new number in his phone and a date set for tomorrow night and a new found resolve to never ever admit this was thanks to Lance under pain of death.

-

Keith was sitting on the counter at Hunk’s shop, swinging his feet back and forth so his heels knocked occasionally against the wood.

“How do you know how to do that?”

Hunk smiled, not looking away from where he was delicately arranging a wedding bouquet.

“Do what?”

Gesturing a little, Keith waved his hands as if to encompass Hunk, the bouquet, and every arrangement in the shop.

“Just…know what looks good? I know when you show me an arrangement, that it’s good. But if you told me to make one? I wouldn’t know where to start,” Keith confessed, a smile pulling at the edge of his mouth as he watched Hunk’s tongue poke out between his lips in concentration.

“How do you know how to fix a car?”

Keith scoffed. It wasn’t the same at all. Keith knew how to fix a car because he had studied what made cars work. Besides, engines just made sense. If something was broken, you fixed it. Instead of answering, Keith watched Hunk take the cream ribbon and tie it around the base of the bouquet.

For someone so large, there was something delicate about his hands, the way they moved, the way they adjusted each flower and leaf, just so. Keith had had his own first-hand account of how delicate Hunk could be with his hands just last night, and the memory sent heat skating down his spine. He shook his head, trying to dispel the images flooding his mind.

Finally, Hunk looked up from his completed project, smiling even more as he caught sight of Keith’s rosy cheeks.

“It really is the same. You’ve practice fixing engines, I’ve practiced arranging flowers. It’s all about familiarity,” Hunk shrugged, as if that explained it all.

Keith seriously doubted that he would ever be able to create something to rival Hunk’s masterpieces, no matter how much practice he put in.

Hunk was still watching him though, a slow smirk on his lips.

“Let me kiss you?” Hunk asked, hand tucked behind his back, waiting for permission.

Nodding shyly, Keith spread his legs a little in invitation so Hunk could settle between them and hold him close.

He still had another 10 minutes on his lunch break, anyway.

-

Keith snorted, he had promised not to laugh, but he couldn’t help it. It wasn’t that Hunk was bad at working on the cars, in fact, he took to it better and faster then most. The issue was that, no matter what he did, he always ended up with grease and oil smeared down the side of his face and all in his hair.

“You promised!” Hunk accused, but he was laughing too, his legs spread out in front of him on the garage floor.

“Come on messy,” Keith bit his lip, trying to stifle another peal of laughter as he saw just how filthy Hunk was.

“I don’t know how you do that, every time,” Keith was smiling helplessly as he tried and failed to dab away the grease matting Hunk’s left eyebrow.

“Just talented, I guess,” Hunk hummed, tilting his head into Keith’s palm and hindering his doomed cleaning attempts.

“I guess if you ever need your car fixed, I’ll just have to be the on to do it and save you the grief,” Keith leaned up on his toes to kiss him, taking the sting out of his words.

“I guess you’ll just have to be with me forever then,” Hunk whispered, taking Keith’s free hand in his, the other braced against Hunk’s shoulder to steady himself.

-

When Keith walked into his office almost a year later, he didn’t think much about the roses on his desk. Hunk left him flowers usually once or twice a week, feeding Keith’s no longer secret addiction to the delicate creatures. Their house always smelled fresh with cuttings and Keith reveled in it just as much as Hunk did.

He plucked the folded note out of the bouquet, smiling before he had even read the words.  

_Marry me?_

Standing there, wearing grease stained coveralls, Keith turned around to find Hunk, sleeves rolled up to his shoulders in imitation of so long ago. He was holding out an open box, the ring nestled in the cushions and once again, Keith felt weak.

They came together and Hunk kissed him, tasting the yes on his lips.  


End file.
